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De La Soul is Not Dead.

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Man, I love De La Soul.

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I gotta just kick it off like that.

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They’re still relevant.

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RIP to Trugoy the Dove, but they’re still relevant.

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And this is because maintained that ability to be free with what they’re putting out.

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Mass Appeal’s 30-minute documentary on De La Soul.

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And this documentary takes us, it starts off right at their old high school in Amityville,

Long Island.

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It was just fortuitous that they were classmates like all the same time, almost like the planets aligned.

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And although they were in different grades, Prince Paul, who became the producer was the

oldest, he was a senior.

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And then you had Kelvin Mercer, a.k.a. Posdnous and Dave Jolicoeur,

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Trugoy the Dove, unfortunately had passed away a couple years back, Vincent Mason or Maseo

They just all hit it off.

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They had that same type of vibe.

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They were, more introverted and nerdy and studious, but they bonded over music.

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In the documentary,

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it shows how Prince Paul had already started working with the group Stetsasonic from Brooklyn, but they were a more serious group.

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it's almost like a social experiment with De La Soul.

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They were like the anti-Stetsasonic.

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like, you just goof off, have fun.

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And yeah, put that on the track.

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Talk about nursery rhymes.

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Talk about fish.

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And talk about silliness and...

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joke with each other it ended up being an awesome album.

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Yeah, the documentary does a lot to talk about their artistic integrity.

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Even their first album had to be a reaction, their take on hip hop.

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And then the next album is a reaction to the reaction and to their first album.

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every time they had to put their art first and whether it's being encouraged by Prince Paul to be zany or later on they talk about Stakes Is High and how they came to sort of a

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crossroads where Prince Paul steps aside and more of the production is done by J Dilla and they have a different sound but it's still a De La Soul and it's still them and

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That was successful too, because they stuck to their artistic integrity.

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There were actually some legit heavyweights in the game supported them from the beginning.

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Yeah.

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It showed when they were initially hitting the scene, prominent artists like Big Daddy Kane, Daddy-O

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from Stetsasonic, DMC, giving them their props early in the game.

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saying that even though these guys have a different aesthetic about them, make no mistake

about it, they're legit MC's and their sound is good and giving them props and praising

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them.

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I had no idea really, that kind of esteem.

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DMC was like all over it.

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Like, wow, that was cool.

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That was one of the things that I took away from this documentary.

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Yeah, like DMC was like, he was fanboying.

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He's like in pictures and posing and I was like, wow, look at that.

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He knows what's up.

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DMC knows what’s up.

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then they were showing how Red Alert, Mr.

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Magic gave them a lot of play on the radio and how Red Alert, who was the prominent DJ at Latin Quarters, which was at the time was...

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one of the spots to be in.

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your music got played in Latin Quarters.

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It was legit.

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They paved the way for a lot of more expressive artists in hip hop.

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We talked a little bit about, there's folks like Tyler, the Creator, or Kid Cudi or Juice WRLD, express yourself, like have more emotion and.

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And they also had a significant influence on Common and Mos Def's careers because they were featured in the Stakes Is High album where they had some cameos on songs and

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that helped spark their careers.

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Yeah, Mos considering going into acting at the time and used to like dibble and dabble in

the music.

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I can't imagine him not being part of the music scene.

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Right, I mean, he's a phenomenal actor.

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He makes me laugh on camera.

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He's got some memorable roles and I've seen him, play some legit characters.

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But yeah, I could never picture the Mighty Mos without, some boom bap behind him.

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Yeah.

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His album with Talib Kweli is one of my favorite albums of any albums, not just hip hop,

but that was such a powerful record for me when that came out.

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And I can't imagine it not happening thanks to De La Soul.

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That album is legit boom bap classic right there.

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Oh my God.

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Is that the Black Star?

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Yeah.

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Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star

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Right, right, right.

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My God.

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Right, right.

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I love that album.

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Mm-hmm.

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I can still listen to it front to back, no skips still.

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Matter of fact, I might put that in the car.

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I got the CD sitting right over here.

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But that's the power of De La Soul.

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My thing was it was only 29 minutes.

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It could have been a lot longer.

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The three of us could watch a probably three hour documentary about De La Soul.

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There's more that could have been covered, but I'm glad we got what we got because it was

packed with a lot of good stuff.

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We could have got into more of the Native Tongues collaborations, not just with Tribe, but you

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relationship to the Jungle Brothers. They showed Arsenio but they didn't really address the whole beef they had with them so.

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here I'm reading this book right now, high and rising.

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This is like the album cover by Marcus Moore's awesome book, but it's the D.A.I.S.Y.

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Age.

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And they kind of just let Tommy Boy Records come up with a whole image and they did not want to be such an extreme hippie. They didn't like that hippie label.

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The book I'm reading is kind of delves into the Native Tongues a little bit more.

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There was a falling out at some point with them and Tribe and misunderstanding.

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I didn't really know much about that.

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Yeah, there's more they could get into and it only goes up to 2016 anyway lot happens since then.

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Documentary comes out in 2016, which is before all of this of comes to a head because they had been fighting with Tommy Boy all this time.

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But it wasn't until 2019 that Tommy Boy acquires the master recordings from Warner

Brothers and were trying to put it out on streaming.

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De La was only going to get 10 percent of the profit.

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they pushed back.

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of course.

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that's what they do.

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They protect their integrity.

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Years go by and Tommy Boy gets acquired.

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And then finally they get their masters back.

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And that's when they try to put it out on streaming.

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But then it takes more time to clear more, back end things.

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And then, now years past the documentary.

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Their music was finally released

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3-3-23, because three is the magic number.

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The music's on streaming in March, but Dave had died two weeks before, which is super sad.

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for De La Soul is Not Dead, BooGie, would you bring this funky flick back or leave it in the vault?

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Yeah, just like the title says, De La Soul is not dead.

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Bring that funky flick back.

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Dyno Wright, would you bring this funky flick back or leave it in the vault?

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I'm definitely bringing this funky flick back.

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Yeah, it's unanimous.

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will definitely bring this funky flick back.

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De La Soul is one of my favorite groups and I'd love to see any content about them.

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Thank you for tuning into the Hip Hop Movie Club show.

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The show for serious hip hop fans want to deepen their cultural knowledge.

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I'm Dyno Wright, filmmaker, designer, long time hip hop fan.

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I was glad to see De La in 2002 on the Unlimited Sunshine tour.

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I'm JB 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie longtime hip-hop fan.

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As I mentioned, I'm currently reading Marcus Moore's awesome biography about De La Soul entitled High and Rising and 3 Feet High and Rising is one of my favorite albums of

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all time.

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time.

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Yes sir, yes sir.

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And once again, I'm Boogie, a DJ, long time hip hop fan.

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And as I mentioned in our episode, my favorite De La Soul album is, De La Soul is dead.

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I love the production of songs on Stakes is High, but I got 3 decades of...

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De La Soul is Dead and the songs, have really grown on me.

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Can't get rid of them.

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Ahhhh.

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I'm holding up a patch of Stakes is High, my favorite album, of course.

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“Stakes Is High” is

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probably one of the greatest tracks.

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Like that track is so, my God.

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As a J Dilla fan, the combination of De La and Dilla together, instant classic for me.

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And remember, don't hate roller skate.

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Heeeyy

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Saturday, Saturday.

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A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays.

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Yo that's one of my favorite songs of all time man.

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As soon as I hear that intro come on I go nuts.

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So fun.

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Such a fun song.

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It's a fun song in their catalog.

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fun too, I love the video.

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Mm-hmm.